Character Development In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

“Speak” written by Laurie Halse Anderson beautifully writes about how a girl is attacked by her own silence. Melinda Sordino’s life completely changed after being raped at a party. Throughout her school-year, her insecurity and self-consciousness consumes her and she experiences a period of self destruction due to her incapability to express herself. Eventually, Melinda is forced to overcome her quietness and speaks out. However, the way she speaks out illustrates critical aspects of her character development. Speaking out through writing results in her gaining motivation for speaking out again. Henceforth, this scene of confessing through writing should be kept as is because it sets the stage for her character development and enforces her

This subtle expression illustrates more about Melinda than any other excerpt has done before. Also, this scene sets the stage for the rest of Melinda’s development. The text states, “I am wide awake. I feel itchy inside my skin- ansty. I can’t sit still. I have to do something,” (Anderson) Due to Melinda’s writing, she is able to finally break out her shell and even feel the need to correct injustice. This courage, eventually, led to Melinda being able to shout against her rapist after he tries to rape her for the second time. Anderson writes, “His mouth is on my face. I twist my head. (...) A sound explodes from me. NOOOOOOOOOO,” (Anderson). Melinda finally overcame her ‘disability’ to speak. Instead of slitting her wrists or biting her lip, she screamed and used the power of her voice to express her opinions. However, this would not be existential without her initial release of confidence being her expression through writing. In which, confessing her past through writing needs to remain because it is the primary gateway that sets up the rest of the story. In the film, however, Melinda did not write anything. This is a mistake because writing was the ‘baby step’ that she needed to take in order for her opinion to spread and fully be exposed. Without this action occuring the plot has gaps which does not ease for a smoother story. With these said ‘gaps’ Melinda is not fully the character that she once could have been. This is because by speaking out through writing twice and speaking out in person again illustrates how she is finally in a position that permits her to talk about her problems comfortably. By excluding this scene, the impact of her speaking is not as comfortable nor as fluid as it is in the text. In fact, Melinda staying silent is an anti-climatic and useless and defeats the purpose of the climax. Henceforth, the writing scene should be kept as